ASSIGNMENT 1


a) Translation is both a process and a product. It is a process because you have to process relevant information and knowledge in a certain amount of time to translate the material. Also, it is a product because at the end of that process, you create a product. For example, while you are translating a movie into Turkish, first of all you need to have enough language proficiency, cultural background, discourse knowledge, particular terms, time and even more than that. All these are a vehicle to have a process leading to a product. After that process, you produce a translation. So, it becomes a product, as well.

b) Translation means to change the language of any products into another language by trying to save/keep the meaning same or similar to the original one.

c) When I was in Bodrum, Muğla, my aunt and I went shopping. There was a couple walking down the street. Then they took a rest for a while as we did. My aunt suddenly tried to communicate with them. She wanted to know where they were from, whether they liked Bodrum or not, what they thought about Turkish people etc. Then she explained that Turkish people were "hot blooded", which meant nothing to them since she actually wanted to say "sincere".
When I was in the USA, one of my American friends invited me to have dinner with her and her friends. After dinner, I wanted to introduce our culture in terms of food and people's behaviour. I had really difficult time to translate our traditional food because I couldn't find the exact translation of them.

d) Translation contributes many things to my language. Firstly, I see that I need to develop my vocabulary knowledge in order to communicate with others. Then, to know about another culture becomes important to me since in translation you need to know this. Also, I understand that I need to improve my discourse knowledge and to know how I should response in a particular context. Moreover, my grammar becomes better. In conclusion, how much you translate becomes how well you speak and understand in another language, or vice versa.

e) In Turkey, what I see is that we have good translation in documents, most of the books or literary works. However, while I am watching TV and seeing movies or series, I confront with some mistakes in translation. Most of the time it is because of lack of cultural knowledge or it is because the translator does not have discourse knowledge and s/he cannot catch the contextual clues.
It is important to have translation courses for English language teaching since our future students will be exposed to English in all four important skills. For example, while they are listening to any songs, or seeing any movies, they need to understand what singers or actors are trying to say. Also, while they are reading any texts in English, they need to know what authors are trying to say. So we should be capable of translating those genres so that our students can have better understanding and learning in English.